Lost Landscapes at The Internet Archive

The Lost Landscapes of San Francisco: A Benefit for the Internet Archive. Monday January 29. 

The corner of Funston and Clement is about a half mile from my apartment. On that corner is a large, white two story building. It was obviously a church at some time. It has the classical architecture of a Greek temple. It was once the Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist. On the board that used to announce services and sermons it now says Internet Archive.

The Internet Archive has a goal that seems almost impossible. During the early days of the Internet there was little thought to what its legacy would be. Everything was focussed on the next thing. Links went “bad” and early sites were abandoned. Who cared about the history of the Internet? “The Web was ephemeral. Unlike newspapers, no one was saving it.” It was hard to think of the Internet in historical terms.  

The founder of the Internet Archive is Brewster Kahle. He started archiving the Internet in 1996. The Wayback Machine preserved early web sites. 279 billion web pages! The mission of the Internet Archive is, “To provide universal access to all knowledge.” The Archive started digitizing books (11 million) audio recordings (4 million, including 160,000 live concerts) images and software programs. 

I Googled the former church’s address. 300 Funston. In seconds Wikipedia gave me the history of the building. There was a history of Christian Science. How long would it have taken to find this in “the old days?" Maybe it would have taken a trip to the library. Would I have bothered?

The founder of Christian Science was Mary Baker Eddy> She was a powerful, dynamic woman. Christian Science taught that, “Sickness is an illusion that can be corrected by prayer alone.” Eddy’s followers believed in philosophical idealism. Reality is purely spiritual and the material world is an illusion. Sounds good to me. 

The religion was popular, but membership has dwindled. Christian Science drew media attention in the Nineties with court cases involving parents who did not get their children medical care. 

The Google search led to the Pacific Coast Architecture Database at:  pcad.lib.washington.edu. The cost of building the church was estimated at $125,000. The building was sold to the Open Library of San Francisco in 2009.

Tonight The Internet Archive was joining forces with Rick Prelinger to present Lost Landscapes 12. In the early Eighties Prelinger had started to collect and accumulate film footage that most archives and libraries were throwing away. He was going to digitize and preserve them. He saw film as a look back in time that was being lost. Home movies were a treasure trove of information.

Prelinger put together some of the footage and presented them as Lost Landscapes. They became popular events that sold out The Castro Theater. 

I had been dying to get inside this building and snoop. We checked in and there was a small lobby area with appetizers from the wonderful people of La Mediterranee Restaurant on nearby Fillmore Street.  A TV showed scenes from Lost Landscapes 7.  Tonight’s event was in The Big Room upstairs. It was a large auditorium that had served as the center of Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist. We would sit in pews facing a stage and small screen. A cardboard “Wayback Machine” was next to the screen. 

It was a church, and it was an odd setting. There were mannequins along one wall. Some were sitting in the pews that had bad sight lines to the screen. They were about half size caricatures, but they were oddly life like. In the back, behind the pews were two large black Internet servers. They were framed by church alcoves behind them. Lights on them blinked. They reminded me of an old science fiction move.   

Founder Brewster Kahle comes onstage. Tonight is a fund raiser and he thanks donors. He tells us about an anonymous donor that made such a fortune with Bitcoin that he donated a million dollars to The Internet Archive! This donor will also match any contributions in the next three months by two to one, up to another million dollars. So, if anyone knows how to raise a million dollars in the next three months, let Brewster Kahle know. 

He explains the mannequins. Anyone who is employed by The Internet Archive for three years gets their own dummy! It looks like quite an honor, and an incentive to stay working for the nonprofit. 

Kahle points out the monolithic servers in the back. Lights blink on them. Each light is a sign that someone is downloading something from InternetArchive.org. 

Kahle admits that when Prelinger told him about his idea for Lost Landscapes he “didn’t think it would fly.” Why would anyone come to see someone else’s home movies? He didn’t like to watch home movies of his own. There’s many history buffs and film fanatics in San Francisco. Lost Landscapes became wildly popular. I’ve tried to attend before and found the event sold out well in advance. 

Most of the footage we’ll see are home movies. There are ads and odd commercial footage from the past. Prelinger has tracked down out takes from movies filmed in San Francisco. 

Prelinger asks how many are attending a Lost Landscapes event for the first time. I’m surprised when at least two-thirds of the crowd raise their hands. I’ve watched Lost Landscapes online, but it’s not the same. Tonight is an opportunity.  

Prelinger has a podium with a laptop on it. “Let’s see if I can get this thing to work.” He explains that there will be no sound to the clips. We are the soundtrack. We’re encouraged to yell out comments or questions. Prelinger often finds out during Lost Landscapes where some of the more obscure footage was shot. Sometimes he doesn’t know who the people in the home movies are. “If you recognize someone or something, let us know!”  

We’ve been trained to keep quiet during films, so this is quite a switch. So what do people do? This audience seems oddly quiet. There are comments and questions, but most just watch. Maybe it’s the Inner Richmond neighborhood.

The ads for Lost Landscape gave us an idea of the footage we would see tonight. New Deal labor footage. Out takes from The Line Up. The filming of What’s Up Doc? with Ryan O’Neal and Barbara Streisand at Twenty-Fifth and Balboa. Home movies and the clincher for me: North Beach clubs and nightlife! 

Some of the early footage we see is older. There are shots of the Bay Bridge being built. The City skyline from sixty, seventy years ago! Everything looks small. It was the mythical San Francisco that we have heard and read about. 

You have to feel like a bit of a voyeur watching someone else’s home movies, but the Latino family in the Portrero are so friendly and open to the camera that it seems OK. We see someone’s first Holy Communion and then a birthday party. At the end the kitchen is scanned. Someone in the audience wished it was her kitchen. 

There’s great historical footage. A labor dispute on the Embarcadero. Trucks that can’t be unloaded line up. Another clip shows Chinese protesting the loading of a Japanese ship with scrap metal. Prelinger thinks it's from 1939.  

China had already been invaded by Japan. A clip shows a parade in Chinatown to call attention to and aid Chinese refugees. Prelinger said the parade did have a big effect, including getting the first public housing put up in Chinatown. 

The North Beach footage is pretty cool. Most of it is of the neon signs of the night spots and restaurants. Some I at least heard of, many of them I did not. Ray’s. Vanessi’s. DelVecchio’s. Gay Nineties on Broadway. Finocchio’s gets some applause. Of course The Condor. A shot of The Bocce Caffe.

We see the mysterious Running Man. He’s appeared in Lost Landscapes before. He goes through Chinatown and runs up California towards Nob Hill. Prelinger still doesn’t know who he is. 

There are out takes from Don Siegel’s classic Film Noir: The Line Up. A school group herded by nuns gets off a bus and enters Sutro Baths. We get a great look at the inside of the building. The film is obviously of higher quality than the home movies.  

One family has great shots of iconic San Francisco sites. Coit Tower. A ride on the glass elevator at the St. Francis with a view of the Forties skyline. The huge, almost forgotten Fleishacker Pool. Fisherman’s Wharf. Playland. The movies concentrate on showing two young daughters, but we can spot places in the background. Even casual footage of Fisherman’s Wharf shows the history of the area. There’s an audible reaction during a short shot of the now gone exterior of the Steinhardt Aquarium. The seals frolic outside of the museum. 

People shout out comments and information during the show. It is still a bit surprising how many of us share an obsession with obscure San Francisco history. I’ve stopped wondering why. Is it selective nostalgia? 

One of the last clips is footage of a peace march in June of 1969. Prelinger says he concentrated on faces during his editing. The hair and clothing are very similar to today’s demonstrators. “Not much has changed.”          

     

 

 

Noir City 2018

Noir City 2018. January 26, 2018. 

It’s the Opening Night of the Sixteenth Annual San Francisco Film Noir Festival, also known as Noir City. There is some buzz outside the historic Castro Theater. I get there an hour and fifteen minutes before show time. I want to deal with Will Call and go up the street for a piece of pizza at Oz’s. People with full festival “Passport” tickets are entering the theater. There’s a reception for them on the mezzanine in the balcony. Other fans with tickets for tonight wait in line to get their favorite seats. Many are dressed in the styles of the Forties and Fifties. People are clearly excited. 

There’s plenty of time to go up Castro Street and get my slice of pizza at Oz. It’s become a bit of a ritual for me. They have some exotic toppings including ostrich and camel. It’s early on Friday night and the neighborhood is rocking. 

Back to The Castro Theater. Volunteers guide the crowd in. Inside the door a young man in suit and fedora hands me a festival guide. The guide may be half the reason I’ve come here. It’s very well done with photos, thumbnail descriptions of the films and many Noir fun facts. There are pictures of the posters and lobby cards for the films we’ll see over the next ten days. 

It’s still exciting to enter the historic Castro Theater. I work some events there during the San Francisco International Film Festival and see at least a few other films there during the year. It’s still an amazing place and the best setting for a Noir film festival.

Three female singers are onstage doing standards. The Century Singers are  wearing slinky cocktail dresses. Their only accompaniment is an electric keyboard player. They’re entertaining people while they look for seats and socialize a bit.

There’s time to check out the scene on the balcony. An area is roped off for Passport holders who are treated to samples of food, beverage and Noir related products. There is an area the public can go into, but the real party is behind the velvet ropes. The wonderful people from Green Apple have quite a spread of Noir books. New editions of Noir classics have screaming, lurid pulp covers. So many books ... 

I was standing next to two Passport holders. They perused the festival schedule hand out. “Are you doing them all?” “No, I have to do something on Thursday.” Twenty four films in ten days. That’s not as intense as what some people do during the San Francisco International Film Festival, but it’s still pretty impressive. 

The Century Singers wrap up with the City’s theme song “San Francisco.” The mighty Castro Wurlitzer rises from the orchestra pit with Matt Hagerty at the keyboard. The house organist plays while the stage is cleared of microphones and wires. We’re treated to another version of the City’s song and people clap in unison. Maybe it’s the guys and dolls in period costume. This is a real San Francisco event.

The curtains part and the festival trailer begins. The Noir clips look a little too familiar. Isn’t that a scene from the film they showed a few years back? The one about the guys driving trucks loaded with dynamite through Mexican jungle and treacherous mountain trails? I recognize the opening theme song from my current favorite TV show, Vikings. It’s the Norse call to battle. The pounding beat is quite a combination with the clips of Noir violence. My blood pressure is starting to rise ... and the screen goes dark. 

The crowd is quiet. There are a few wise cracks, but most of us just wait in the dark. A few minutes go by and the trailer starts again. When it gets to about the same spot, the screen goes dark again.

Technical difficulties are a part of festival life, but it’s still surprising how patient the crowd is. I have to admit that I did wonder, how bad are the technical difficulties?

The reassuring voice of Noir City announcer Bill Arney introduces The Czar of Noir, Eddie Muller. Muller is his usual suave, dapper self. Does anyone wear a suit better than Eddie Muller? He certainly doesn’t seem ruffled by the bad technical start. 

Muller has personally sparked the Noir revival. There are plenty of fans in the Bay Area that yearn for nostalgia, but it was Muller really who gave the genre a huge boost. He hosts Noir festivals in other cities including Los Angeles, Seattle and Chicago. He’s been getting more national exposure with his show on Turner Classic Movies: Noir City. It is aired at an unfortunate time, 7 a.m. on Sunday morning. With today’s cable TV technology it shouldn’t make a difference. Just tape it. But come on Turner Classic Movies. This show should be on at night!   

This year’s theme is Film Noir A to B. “A Dozen Double Bills! Classy As and Trashy Bs!” Younger generations don’t even know what a double feature is. Studios paired an A picture that had bigger production budgets and stars with a B picture. Usually the B picture played first. Noir City is usually a double feature anyway. It’s a step back to what going to the movies used to be like, and another of the festival’s links to the past. Muller says that a night out at the movies was a bigger deal in the old days. It was more of a social event. This year films from a certain year will be shown each night. We’ll go in chronological order from 1941 and go to 1953. What most consider the Golden Age of Noir. 

Muller explains the earlier technical difficulties. The trailer was from the 2014 Noir City: “It’s a Bitter Little World.” “They still want it to be 2014 up in the projection booth.” Most of the crowd wishes we could go back to 2014. Muller mentions why we’re really here. The goal of the Film Noir Foundation is to restore Noir films.

One of the Century Singers joins Muller onstage. He hopes she will provide a distraction from the technical difficulties. Annabelle is this year’s Ms Noir City. She attended the festival before she lived in San Francisco. Being Ms. Noir City, “Is a dream come true.” She’s an actress and singer. Muller and Annabelle talk fast. They’re probably making up some lost time from the trailer glitch. Ms. Noir calms things down by singing a song.  

Muller introduces and brings out tonight’s special guest. Victoria Mature is the daughter of Victor Mature. He’s the male lead in this year’s first film I Wake Up Screaming. She’s an attractive young woman. This is surprising. People in the audience are doing the math. 

Muller often meets the offspring of big movie stars and usually finds himself asking: What was it like being the son or daughter of a successful movie actor? How did people treat her father? How did fans treat her? Victoria says she certainly noticed how people gave her father the star treatment. She says she didn’t know her father when he was in his thirties, forties or fifties. At first I thought this was one of those Hollywood abandonment stories. Movie careers were demanding. 

The reason Victoria didn’t know her father during his stardom was that Victoria didn’t exist then. Victor Mature was sixty-two when Victoria was born. Muller exults and gives us a bit of a hip shake. “There’s hope for us all!” 
Victoria says that he agreed with critics of his acting. He used to say, "I'm a bad actor, and I have a hundred films to prove it!" 

Half the fun of Noir City is Muller’s introductions to the films. He thinks The Maltese Falcon was the first Noir film, but some make a case for I Wake Up Screaming. The third prototype Noir film was Stranger on the Third Floor.  It was originally titled Hot Spot. Director H. Bruce Humberstone made only one Noir film, but he helped define the genre.

What the first “real” Noir film was is a matter of some debate. I wondered which one was made first. Which one was released first? Does it make any difference? There were certainly crime dramas before 1941, but Muller means the classic era of Noir, 1941 to 1953. 

Muller says he’s often asked, in what city where were the most Noir films made? Most Noir films were filmed in Los Angeles. New York was second and San Francisco was third. I Wake Up Screaming was filmed in Los Angeles and has some vintage shots. He points out that in LA Noir films the camera tends to pan along a horizon. In New York the camera tends to pan up and down accenting the height of the skyscrapers in the urban jungle. 

I Wake Up Screaming starts with a panoramic view of Los Angeles. The opening music is “Street Scene” by Alfred Newman. It’s a familiar Noir theme that was used in three other films. 

Betty Grable (Jill Lynn) visits her sister at the cafe where she is a waitress. Carole Landis (Vicky Lynn) is “the hash slinger” who wants to escape the cafe and “be somebody” enjoy the high life. Betty Grable tries to talk her out of this. Sometimes the sisters look identical to me.  

A large guy lurks outside watching Landis’ every move. Her sister is concerned, but Vicky Lynn says dealing with creeps is just a part of the job! He tries to hide in the shadows and follows them home. 

Later the Victor Mature character, Frankie Christopher, comes into the cafe. He’s a promoter. “Sports, women, anything.” Frankie is a cool guy. He’s quick with handouts to those down on their luck. He’s smitten by Vicky Lynn, and who can blame him. He offers to take her out on a night on the town. There’s a bit of a Pygmalion subplot. He and a couple of his friends talk about taking someone and introducing them to high society. Would even a lowly waitress fit in? They take her to a posh nightclub, and Vicky Lynn quickly proves them correct.  

Some of the background music is the melody from Somewhere Over the Rainbow. It’s a bit surprising. I Wake Up Screaming was a Twentieth Century Fox production. Why did they use the song from an MGM classic? Muller later comments that the tune will probably give us nightmares later.  

Things go bad quickly. Frankie finds the body of Vicky Lynn. He’s standing over her when her sister walks in. It doesn’t look good. “You don’t think I did it!” 

Well, the cops do and they give him the third degree. They even use the spotlight on him. The whole deal. “Let’s go over this one more time...” 

One of the cops is the creepy guy who stalked Vicky Lynn at the start of the movie. Cornell is played by Laird Cregar. He made a career with parts like this. “So what if I’m a peeping Tom!” That’s part of his job. “I made sure she got home.”

Cornell is sure that Frankie is guilty and becomes obsessed with pinning the murder on him. He brags about how he will get him the death penalty. The cops have got nothing on Frankie and he’s free to fall in love with the “good” sister. He takes Jill Lynn/Betty Grable to her first nightclub, boxing (“We’ll sit in the gallery. That’s where the real fans are.”) and a late night swim in a public pool.   

An early suspect is Elisha Cook, Jr. He was the hapless gunsel in The Maltese Falcon. During the introduction Muller gives him special mention, reminding us that he’s a San Francisco native.  

Cook is a desk clerk. It looks like being a desk clerk in a hotel is a great slacker job. Does anyone do cowardly fear better than him? When he’s accused his wild eyes bug out. He’s already sweating. 

There are the usual Noir plot twists to try to keep you guessing. There’s much running around. Scary cop Cregar visits Jill Lynn. She says that you can’t live without hope. The cop answers, “It’s been done.”

Some scenes look familiar. This happens to me all the time with Film Noir. Maybe I saw it on TV years ago. 

Intermission. The balcony area mezzanine has been opened up for the public. Sponsors display their wares or give away samples. A young guy is passing out comic books. He’s not getting much attention with this crowd. It’s a DC book: Batman in Noir Alley. Batman meets Eddie Muller! They search for the stolen Moroccan Raptor. It’s odd to see Eddie Muller in a comic book.

The crowd is enthusiastic and it’s clear how much people enjoy the festival. Attendance seems weak for Opening Night. There’s plenty of room in the balcony. 
This year's trailer is shown and it's worth the wait. Serena Bramble creates well edited combinations of music and Noir.   

Muller is back onstage for a new feature this year. A trivia contest! We’re encouraged to sign up, but there is a warning. You have to know your Noir or you’re going to look very silly onstage. 

A young woman is this year’s first contestant. She will get three clues and then she must tell us what Noir film is being described. 

The first clue: This was the only Noir film that had a title song that became a Top 40 hit. You can guess after one clue if you really know you’re stuff and want to impress the audience. Muller reminds the crowd: No help from the audience!  

One of the main characters is a flamboyant newspaper columnist. People in the audience that know the answer are squirming.  

I have to admit I was thinking Bad and Beautiful, but she guesses right: Laura. She wins a stack of DVDs.  

The second film will be the B film of the double feature: Among the Living. Muller says it’s a cross between Horror and Noir. “It was early in the Noir game and they were still figuring things out.” It’s also Gothic. The film takes place in the South. “Where people are hidden in attics for a couple of decades.”

Muller tells us that writer Lester Cole makes some social commentary during the film. He was later blacklisted. I’m surprised there’s no mention of Dekker’s demise.

Albert Dekker plays twin brothers. They are the son of a wealthy industrialist and the founder of the town. The film opens with the father’s funeral. The lower classes are huddled outside the gates of the cemetery making snide remarks. 

Paul Raden (Dekker #1) has returned for the funeral. His brother had died when they were ten, or so he was told. The family doctor (Harry Carey) arranged for another child to be buried and he faked the death certificate. Really the brother had been thrown against a wall when he tried to defend his mother from some kind of evil advances from the father. John (Dekker #2) suffered brain damage that drove him insane. He is kept hidden in an attic room for twenty-five years.

This one is pretty wild. We first see John in the attic in a strait jacket. Black servant Pompey (pronounced Pom-pee) takes care of him. Is he all right? Will he behave if the strait jacket is taken off? 

John wants to be sure his father isn’t buried next to his mother. So that “He can’t hurt her anymore.” Pompey tells him the father is buried somewhere else, but John doesn’t believe him. He’s learned not to trust anyone during his twenty-five years of being locked in the attic. He has to see for himself! He strangles Pompey and escapes by jumping out a window. Too bad he didn’t think of that before during the previous twenty five years, but he is insane.  

It may not be the acting job of the century, but playing identical twins has to be a challenge for any actor. The “insane” Dekker, John, gets more of the screen time. Paul seems to fade into the background. Dekker didn’t get an Oscar nomination for this. I didn’t realize Paul’s wife was played by Frances Farmer until I saw her name in the credits. She doesn’t have much of a role.

We can tell the twins apart. It’s easy. The insane one hasn’t shaved. John goes into the town which looks more like New York City than a small mill town. He’s a wide eyed innocent returning to civilization. John is fascinated by seeing people, especially Millie Pickens, played by a stunning Susan Hayward. It’s easy for John to make friends. He has a big roll of money that he innocently flashes around and spends. 

Among the Living has the pacing and atmosphere of an old Horror film. I thought Bela Lugosi would pop out from behind the weeping willows at any minute. 

John seems almost normal. Being around Susan Hayward probably helps, but eventually he goes back to his insane ways. A young woman is killed and the community is outraged. A monster is on the loose! Paul is talked into offering a $5,000 reward. 

This sets the locals off into mob action. Everyone wants that reward, but they seem to just roust some of the even less fortunates. Vagrants and usual suspects are rounded up. The insane killer is standing right next to them, but he must be OK because he’s with Susan Hayward.     

Just about all the films shown at Noir City can be found online. I’ve watched some of them. They’re still absorbing, but there’s just something wrong about watching a film on a computer. It shouldn’t be such a big deal. It’s still a screen and you can’t beat the convenience. The films are usually free. There’s still nothing like seeing these films on a big screen. It’s fun to be among dedicated Noir fans and hearing the crowd’s reactions. There are laughs at unintended double entendres or slang that has a much different meaning today.